Israel places 16-year-old Palestinian girl in 4-month administrative detention

Israeli authorities on Thursday placed 16-year-old Palestinian girl Rimas Asaad Dweikat from the northern occupied West Bank province of Nablus in administrative detention for four months without charge, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society. The group said in a statement that the decision raised the number of Palestinian women held under administrative detention to 21 out of 90 female detainees in Israeli prisons. Dweikat is also one of three girls currently held in Israeli prisons, it added.

The group said Israeli forces detained Dweikat on Nov. 4 after raiding her family home in the town of Beita in Nablus province. She is a high school student, according to the statement. The number of Palestinians held under administrative detention has risen to unprecedented levels since the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, including among women and children, the statement added. The number of administrative detainees exceeded 3,100 as of October, including dozens of children under the age of 18, it said.

The group said the number of administrative detainees since the war began is the highest on record, amid an expansion in Israel’s use of the policy. It described administrative detention as one of the most prominent policies Israel has systematically used against Palestinians for decades, affecting various segments of society. The organization also accused Israeli courts at different levels of reinforcing the policy through “formalistic trials” and routinely approving detention orders issued on the basis of Israeli intelligence assessments.

It said the practice has undergone repeated changes over the years and continued to expand despite hunger strikes and court boycotts by Palestinian detainees protesting the policy. The Palestinian Prisoners Society said Israeli authorities have continued to develop new methods and mechanisms to entrench and broaden the use of administrative detention.